Kamal Khujandi

(pseudonym of Kamal-al-Din Masud Khujandi). Year of birth unknown; died between 1391 and 1400. Tadzhik poet.

Kamal Khujandi was born in Khodzhent (present-day Leninabad) and lived in Tabriz, where he died in poverty. His divan [collection of poetry] consists of 14,000 bayts, of which about 8,000 have been preserved. The poet frequently laments his loneliness and poverty in an alien land and criticizes the clergy from the Sufi point of view. The theme of love dominates his work, and his ghazels are notable for their use of homonyms and punning rhymes.